Fleeting Magic
by Civil Enough
Summary: How wonderful it would be if gravity didn't exist. Then we can fly and reach out to heaven without the fear of falling.


**Warning: **Uhm… Made this an hour ago and it's pretty crappy- maybe because I'm nervous for my exams after not reviewing for a single subject and just writing fan fiction?

_Oh, and; right, anyone who's got an account on ; please add me!!! _

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"**Fleeting Magic"**

***

_**How wonderful it would be if gravity didn't exist… **_

_**Then we can fly and reach out to heaven without the fear of falling.**_

***

Sasuke could clearly feel the tension in the room as he enters it. Sakura's head was pressed against the orange worn-out couch, her body curled, looking much smaller with her shoulders quivering violently. Sasuke knew there was something wrong within the four worn out walls of this particular room - the way the air feels so constricting against his lungs, the musky thickness of burnt ashes infiltrating his nostrils- it all felt so familiar.

He scans over the messy apartment and his heart mourns, unknowingly, in his chest, but his lips remain hard-pressed and silent, because he doesn't know what's wrong, just that something is, and Sasuke has always been the kind of man to learn before speaking.

He feels unbearably tired as if he had just climbed the steepest mountain and was then forced to run back down. His legs and arms ache for reasons unknown and pulling himself onto the sofa takes almost every ounce of energy he has left. It's when his head falls back against the cushions that he hears Kiba outside the door; screaming, crying, and pounding at the creaking inanimate obstruction into oblivion-and yes, there must be a reason, he tells himself, that everything feels ruined.

He racks his brain, long and hard. Because isn't that what Uchiha's are for? For thinking, and smirking, and being all high and mighty- a jerk. A teme.

Something flashes against his core- but it vanishes immediately.

His mind is empty again.

When he looks at Sakura, quivering and whimpering and trying her best not to cry, the image drowned over by Kiba's shrieking presence just beyond that wooden barrier, he feels like he should know what it is that's eluding him this very moment.

_He should, but he doesn't._

Sasuke denies the feeling and turns to the entrance, throat drying forebodingly as Sai enters the room, his usually pallid eyes puffy, red and tormented. Completely perplexed, Sasuke finally allows himself to ask what's wrong.

And Sasuke is surprised once more when the other simply stares back at him with hurt-filled shock, not a single trace of that fake smile he's accustomed to wear.

Sakura renews her ritual weeping.

***

_**I can see a hundred reasons why I shouldn't love you. **_

_**But I can tell a million more on why I should. **_

***

They all feel different.

Four days after Sasuke came back from his mission, and everything was still nothing but an array of varying degrees of sadness. Tsunade refused to treat his wounds- every time she starts, she stops and stares at the little flecks on Sasuke's skin, and cries. It doesn't matter how hard Sasuke tries to scrub them off, because even if he can't see them, Tsunade can, and they afflict her.

Taking off his forehead protector to relieve a little of his building headache, Sasuke throws his head back and groans to the heavens.

"Everyone's been an emotional mess lately!"

He then glares half-heartedly at the chuckle Naruto gave from beside him before turning back to the calm water beneath their personal bridge. "And I thought I was supposed to be the touchy one. I don't get it."

Naruto shrugs casually at the words, because whatever it is that's distressing his friends, the blonde seems unaffected.

"Maybe they lost the game," he says cryptically– or, at least, cryptically for Sasuke – and grins like a Cheshire cat.

"The game? What game?" Sasuke prods curiously.

"You know, the game," Naruto continues, his face twitching in slight amusement at his own joke. "Think of it and you loose – Kiba lost the other day and started a chain reaction. Everyone flipped."

Sasuke contemplates Naruto's answer seriously for a moment, before he catches the baka trying to hide his snickering behind a tan hand and the raven proceeds to hit him squarely on the head. The other didn't seem to mind the pain though. "I'm serious," he snaps, though he contemplates silently if Naruto's head had gotten sturdy. This was the part where he's supposed to complain that it hurt, Sasuke thinks.

Naruto shrugs again, averts his eyes, and Sasuke knows that look all too well.

"You know, don't you dobe?" he suggests, voice suddenly accusatory. "You know, and you won't tell me!"

When the other keeps his mouth annoyingly shut, Sasuke throws a menacing glare in the blonde's direction.

"Usuratonkachi; I swear on the grave of my ancestors that you'll open your eyes one day living up to the nickname that freaky pale painter gave you if you don't tell me."

The young Uchiha's left eye twitches when he only gets a girlish giggle in reply.

"Come on teme. Let's spar."

Sasuke begrudgingly complies; he can't refuse that face- and Naruto hides another secretive smile.

***

_**Every one of us is an angel with one wing. **_

_**We just need to find someone to hug so we can fly.**_

***

Breakfast at Ichiraku is eaten in mutual silence.

Sasuke glares at Kakashi pointedly – his look saying something like 'tell me tell me tell me of I'll fucking kill you tell me tell me tell me,' – while stabbing a noodle with his chopstick and stirring the contents of the Ramen impatiently. The members are quiet as they chew, and Sasuke wonders where the morning chatter has gone, just briefly, before he notices Naruto is not eating.

Naruto is pouting down at his placement, walking his fingers like two legs over the counter top. Sasuke realizes he wasn't even given a bowl; and so he turns to send them all a displeased look before he shoves a healthy amount of Ramen into his mouth, drops his chopsticks, and pushes his bowl straight in front of Naruto. Everyone turns at his action, clearly disturbed.

"What?" Sasuke asks, raising a single eyebrow irately. "He can't spar with me on an empty stomach, can he?"

Sakura abruptly excuses herself from the stall.

***

_**If being with you is the greatest sin if all-**_

_**-then why do I seem to be the happiest sinner in the world?**_

***

Two days later and Sasuke finally realizes what's going on – they were blatantly ignoring Naruto, and the blonde, while noticeably peeved, seemed to have accepted it. They didn't talk to him – didn't even mention his name – and went so far as to leave him during ANBU duties. Sasuke can't comprehend what the kyuubi vessel could have done to deserve such harsh treatment, but he's sure that, whatever it is, they're simply taking things too far. He thinks that whatever it is involves Naruto's apartment, as every one of their peers tended to avoid it like the plague, and Jiraiya had even placed a lock on the handle while Naruto forcibly told him that he's going to live in the Uchiha compound for a while. It didn't matter what it was – it had been over a week and no one had even suggested the idea that maybe they had a fifth person practicing on the training grounds with them (his name was unanimously tabooed) and Sasuke didn't think it was right.

Even if he had outright denied it from the very start- after all, they were a family, they were a team, they were a community – they weren't kids anymore. A dispute amongst communities could be settled, should be settled, and Sasuke was going to settle it.

So when Naruto asks Neji about the new jutsu he's been working on and the pale-eyed Hyuuga very coldly ignores him, Sasuke harshly catches Neji by the arm and condescendingly says, "Hey! Just forgive him already, will you?"

Unexpectedly, Neji breaks into tears.

***

_**Sometimes, it's better to be wrong with your heart than to listen to your mind.**_

***

Just as Sasuke turned to interrogate Naruto to ask what exactly happened, Sakura announces that Kakashi had arrived. Surprised that for once, the masked ninja was early, Sasuke follows the other three members and gathers with them at the middle of the wooden bridge. Kakashi turns to look at them with forged professionalism, and he has to remind himself they're just a job, just work, because-

"There really isn't much hope for the group," he says, his single visible eye closing, and the members pretend along with him that they were surprised. All except for Sasuke.

"What?" he snaps, jerking forward from his leaning position against the bridge. Sakura clasps a hand around his wrist, forcing Sasuke to retreat and calm down, but Sasuke squirms until he's released and rears like a mad bull at Kakashi. "Why? Do we get to know why?"

Sai buries his face into his hands, shoulders shivering. Kakashi sighs, "Without Naruto"-

Sasuke cuts his eyes to the blonde, glaring. "What do you mean, without Naruto- we're not breaking up! We're a group! We're- we're family! We're"- his voice trails off into desperate pleading. "We're a Team."

"We're not," Sakura says suddenly, as Sai glares at nothing in particular while gripping his brush on one hand and Sasuke feels like he is being attacked. They all seemed to have made the decision on their own – without him. And without him, they were not a Team, because their Team was five, not four, and their Team could not have made a decision about the Team without him, because their Team was five, and-

"We can't carry it out without Naruto- we can't be who we were without him."

Sasuke looks back at Naruto, and realizes suddenly why the members have been so perturbed with him.

He was leaving them.

"Naruto-baka," he tries, eyes watering for the first time in a long time. Sakura succeeds in restraining him, preventing him from lunging at the blonde.

Naruto looks at Sasuke with apologetic eyes, reaches out to touch him, but Sasuke simply shakes his head and covers his face with his shaking, sweaty palms; because he refuses to believe that this is the end for them. But the look that Naruto's giving him now is like a passage from the scriptures – something prophesized and unstoppable. Kakashi speaks over him, while patting his back and everyone listens. Directions – a plan to execute, how they were going to do a formal request, how to handle the papers…

And when Kakashi finally leaves and Sasuke looks to his left, Naruto is no longer there.

***

_**Love is not blind. **_

_**It simply sees the perfection within and deems the rest irrelevant.**_

***

"All right everyone, let's go."

Sasuke stares at Kakashi, curious as to how the silver-haired man could talk so calmly about this mission. They weren't even on a rush, neither were they loaded with gears that could help them finish this one with a flourish. Sakura was even dressed quite formally, her usual clothes for battle now changed with something a tad bit too long and a little less colorful. The same goes for Kakashi and he was clearly very disturbed about him wearing something other than his green jacket. What were they thinking? Were they going to a party to celebrate about Naruto leaving? It was ridiculous, Sasuke thought, as he rebelliously insisted to stay in his regular outfit, ready to restrain the stupid baka if any struggles would occur.

They were on a mission to stop Naruto from running away as a missing nin after all, just like the way they'd all done before when Sasuke did the same as to what Naruto was doing now.

The baka was exceedingly stupid in thinking that he could leave like this- leave the village, leave his teammates, leave his friends… leave him.

"What are you thinking about Sasuke?"

He hears the soft yet firm whisper, and turns around to find Gaara waiting patiently at the doorway, and to his irritation, dressed once more in those all too uncomfortable clothes not fit for battle.

"Thinking about the best way to beat the crap out of the baka when I see him."

Gaara seems taken aback for a moment, raising both non-existent eyebrows at his venomous tone before muttering, "So… it's true."

"What? What's true!?"

Deep aqua eyes searches his own and Sasuke finds himself regretting that it isn't the shade of sparkling blue he's looking for. Neither did he like the pity he saw swimming in them.

"Then what are you thinking about?" he throws the question irately back at the other teen, breaking the eye contact and desperately searching the room for another pair of eyes he knew he wouldn't find there.

"About… "

And suddenly his onyx orbs land at the door, as if something was pulling his attention. There he finds Naruto, beside Gaara, looking serenely back at him.

Confusion mixes with a feeling of desolation, longing, desperation- _Why? Why?_- it strikes him in a whirlwind of emotions _and before he knew what was happening-_

"-what color of flowers would go well with yellow."

_-Naruto had left him once more. _

Gaara stops speaking and looks curiously at Sasuke's blank stare and the tears falling on his cheeks.

***

_**Love is a sacred madness.**_

***

Sasuke ran. His breathing ragged, his face furious and determined.

"_**Naruto, Naruto…"**_

Damn that Uchiha pride, what the hell does the dobe think he's doing?

"_**The way you say my name is as pretty as a song, Sasuke…"**_

First he leaves, then he appears again? And now he's going to leave once more?

"_**Naruto, please Naruto… no…"**_

He swore loudly as he tripped on a branch before hastily picking himself up and running again. His perception was blurred, his mind was blank. His eyes were fierce and his mind was screaming.

"_**Sweeter and more beautiful than any melody in fact…"**_

Everyone yelled for him to come back.

"_**The medics will come soon, dobe- just damn hang in there!"**_

Sakura cried a river.

"_**Why does it sound sweeter to me now?"**_

Everyone did before they all stopped.

"_**Please, don't- don't close your eyes Naruto…"**_

Sasuke looked up to see a display of shimmering blue.

"_**Is it raining Sasuke?"**_

Everything was silent for a while, and Sasuke thought that he'd lost them somewhere in the thick array of trees. He dragged his feet across the clear waters of a valley he knew all too well and searched for one mop of blonde head he yearns to see, ignoring the mocking message Naruto was giving him in parting at the very same place the Uchiha left.

"_**I'll get you home, you hear? Tsunade's going to fix you up in no time-!"**_

His frantic orbs landed on a white, floating box in the middle of the haunting calmness. The ninjas of Konoha and the rest of their friends waited at the edges of the valley, watching him in dead silence as he approaches it.

"_**Talk some more Sasuke. Because I… c-can't see you… anymore…"**_

"Sasuke… I'm so sorry."

"_**Help! Somebody…! Anybody-! Help us!"**_

Was it Sakura? Kakashi? Sai? Tsunade? He didn't hear clearly for his hands trembled as it reached out to touch that little white case that felt uncannily familiar- so familiar it hurt.

"_**Sasuke… it so dark."**_

And when clear tears make their way down his cheeks as his calloused hands land on the pure, white wooden surface, he forces himself at last to realize that it was not Naruto leaving.

"…_**Naru..?"**_

It was his funeral.

"…_**NARUTO-!?"**_

*

*

***

_**Life has to end. **_

_**Love doesn't.**_

***

-owari

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**COMMENTS ARE FUCKING LOVED. **

**(=^_^=)**

**- may this uber-duber kawaii Naruto smiley make you feel better and prevent you from throwing pitchforks and knives and flames and chainsaws and sharp paper edges and…I really should stop giving you ideas, shouldn't I?**


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